Article
Cell Biology
Simone Pelicci, Laura Furia, Pier Giuseppe Pelicci, Mario Faretta
Summary: The modern fluorescence microscope combines different technologies with varying performance levels. However, the best results are achieved by maximizing one parameter while compromising others, which limits the adoption of new optical microscopy tools in research labs.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Peng Xu, Huan Deng, Zhenya Hong, Simei Zhong, Feifan Chen, Liangliang Wang, Zhenhao Wang, Yu Mei, Ziying Luo, Ziliang He, Haiwen Li, Chao Gan, Huaqiu Zhang, Yan Ma, Zhiqiang Han, Yu-Hui Zhang
Summary: Blood-based tumor liquid biopsies are a noninvasive and convenient alternative to tissue biopsies, and there is a need for new biomarkers. This study presents nanoscale distribution patterns of subcellular structures in platelets as potential biomarkers for tumor liquid biopsies. A standardized protocol for platelet sample preparation and an automated high-throughput image analysis workflow are established. The results suggest the potential of platelet α-granule distribution patterns as biomarkers for various cancers, facilitating diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Muhammad Tahir, Saeed Anwar, Ajmal Mian, Abdul Wahab Muzaffar
Summary: This study demonstrates the effectiveness of deep learning-based pipelines for protein image classification. The proposed end-to-end Protein Localization Convolutional Neural Network (PLCNN) can accurately and reliably classify protein images.
NEURAL COMPUTING & APPLICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Aihui Sun, Yaoyao Ji, Yaxi Li, Wenhui Xie, Zhihe Liu, Tingting Li, Tian Jin, Weizhi Qi, Kai Li, Changfeng Wu, Lei Xi
Summary: PAI, with OR-PAM as a submodality, has high lateral resolution and optical contrast, showing potential in visualizing cellular structures. The proposed multicolor 3D photoacoustic microscopy with improved axial resolution allows visualization of subcellular structures efficiently.
Article
Microscopy
Ruth Schmidt, Manfred Nachtnebel, Martina Dienstleder, Sabrina Mertschnigg, Hartmuth Schroettner, Armin Zankel, Michael Poteser, Hans-Peter Hutter, Wolfgang Eppel, Harald Fitzek
Summary: This study focuses on the analysis of NPs within the 100 nm range in challenging environments, using a correlative approach between scanning electron microscopy and Raman microscopy. Promising detection limits were found, with practical tests revealing limitations in reliable identification of unknown NPs. Combining this approach with advanced sample preparation techniques could yield a powerful tool for NPs analysis in various environments.
Editorial Material
Biochemical Research Methods
Mark C. Leake
Summary: Correlative single-molecule biophysics methods focus on the development and use of complex approaches that combine multiple methods to increase biological insights at the single-molecule level. These methods span both in vivo and in vitro systems, enabling precise measurements and a deeper understanding of the interactions between different processes within the same cell.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jing Wang, Steven Randolph, Qian Wu, Aurelien Botman, Jenna Schardt, Cedric Bouchet-Marquis, Xiaolin Nan, Chad Rue, Marcus Straw
Summary: A CLEM workflow based on a novel FIB/SEM technology using an OSSM process was proposed, which achieved high resolution and imaging efficiency while improving throughput. By combining with iPALM technique, successful 3D imaging of mitochondria was carried out, demonstrating the advantages of OSSM-SEM in CLEM applications.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Optics
Uri Rossman, Tali Dadosh, Yonina C. Eldar, Dan Oron
Summary: A new analysis approach based on the SPARCOM method was proposed, and experimental results showed that confocal SPARCOM provides higher resolution compared to pixel-reassigned based analysis. This method is expected to enhance the effectiveness of ISM.
Article
Biology
Karin Legerstee, Jason Sueters, Tsion E. Abraham, Johan A. Slotman, Gert-Jan Kremers, Jacob P. Hoogenboom, Adriaan B. Houtsmuller
Summary: Focal adhesions (FAs) are important cellular structures that connect the intracellular cytoskeleton to the extracellular matrix. This study used a combination of fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to examine FAs and their associated actin fibres. The results revealed the presence of a highly abundant, novel fork structure at the FA-actin interface in a majority of FAs.
Article
Biology
Raimund Schluessler, Kyoohyun Kim, Martin Noetzel, Anna Taubenberger, Shada Abuhattum, Timon Beck, Paul Mueller, Shovamaye Maharana, Gheorghe Cojoc, Salvatore Girardo, Andreas Hermann, Simon Alberti, Jochen Guck
Summary: Quantitative measurements of physical parameters are increasingly important for understanding biological processes. In this study, a novel method combining Brillouin microscopy with optical diffraction tomography and epifluorescence imaging is presented for explicitly measuring the Brillouin shift, refractive index, and absolute density with specificity to fluorescently labeled structures. Neglecting refractive index and density can lead to erroneous conclusions.
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dokyung Jeong, Doory Kim
Summary: The combination of correlative super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (SRM) and electron microscopy (EM) is an effective hybrid technique that allows the simultaneous acquisition of spatial locations of specific molecules and the context of cellular ultrastructure. Although there are challenges in integrating these two microscopy techniques, extensive research has led to significant improvements and widespread applications.
MOLECULES AND CELLS
(2022)
Article
Cell Biology
Dmytro Puchkov, Paul Markus Mueller, Martin Lehmann, Claudia Matthaeus
Summary: This study describes a novel method combining super-resolution light microscopy and platinum replica transmission electron microscopy (CLEM-PREM) for analyzing plasma membrane sheets in terms of their structural details, curvature, and associated protein composition. The implementation of super-resolution stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy reduces sample preparation time and technical challenges for imaging and analysis. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging overcomes technical challenges associated with replica preparation and transfer on a TEM grid.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Franziska Weigl, Carina Blum, Ana Sancho, Juergen Groll
Summary: In recent decades, hybrid characterization systems have become important in cellular biomechanics research. This paper introduces a multifunctional device that combines Fluorescence Microscopy (FL) with FluidFM technology, allowing for real-time optical tracking of cell detachment processes while acquiring force-distance curves simultaneously.
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Massimiliano Galluzzi, Bokai Zhang, Han Zhang, Lingzhi Wang, Yuan Lin, Xue-Feng Yu, Zhiqin Chu, Jiangyu Li
Summary: The paper introduces the popular AFM-fluorescence correlative microscopy technology in life sciences, highlighting the impact of fluorophores on mechanical information and the degradation of mechanical stability caused by light exposure. The study performed mechanical quantification of a labeled membrane system using AFM mechanics and finite element simulations, emphasizing the necessity to consider photothermal effects when investigating deformability and permeability of phospholipid membranes using fluorescent dyes.
FRONTIERS IN MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Bartosz C. Pruchnik, Janusz D. Fidelus, Ewelina Gacka, Krzysztof Kwoka, Julia Pruchnik, Adrianna Piejko, Lukasz Usydus, Leszek Zaraska, Grzegorz D. Sulka, Tomasz Piasecki, Teodor P. Gotszalk
Summary: This study presented a measurement method for nanowire resistance using nanomanipulation on a specially prepared substrate. The investigation showed that the resistance and resistivity of ZnO nanowires were dependent on the annealing temperature at 200°C and 300°C in air. The research on the electrical properties of nanowire-based structures and devices provides guidance for designing, fabricating, optimizing electromechanical nanodevices, and their safe operation in future electronic applications.
Article
Biophysics
Qiran Zhai, Chen Lin, Bo Duan, Jun Liu, Lu Zhang, Bin Xia
Summary: WhiB4 protein, a member of the WhiB-like protein family, plays a crucial role in the survival and pathology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Acting as a transcription factor, WhiB4 regulates genes involved in redox balance, central metabolism, and respiration. It exists in different forms under different redox environments, including a dimeric holo form with iron-sulfur cluster, multimeric disulfide-linked oxidized apo forms, and a monomeric reduced apo form.
BIOMOLECULAR NMR ASSIGNMENTS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Hui Guo, Gautier M. Courbon, Stephanie A. Bueler, Juntao Mai, Jun Liu, John L. Rubinstein
Summary: The study of the ATP synthase structures in Mycobacterium smegmatis has provided insights into how the enzyme conserves energy through autoinhibition of ATP hydrolysis and the mechanism of action of the drug bedaquiline used in treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is increasingly resistant to first-line antibiotics, allowing infections to remain dormant and decreasing susceptibility to many antibiotics. Bedaquiline, developed from a lead compound identified in a screen against Mycobacterium smegmatis, targets the mycobacterial ATP synthase and is a cornerstone in the treatment of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Letter
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Song Wan, Jia Hu, Jun Liu
JOURNAL OF THORACIC AND CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Bo Duan, Pengfei Ding, William Wiley Navarre, Jun Liu, Bin Xia
Summary: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a major driving force for bacterial evolution, with xenogeneic silencers playing a crucial role in recognizing and suppressing foreign genes to maintain genomic stability. The diversity in DNA recognition mechanisms of xenogeneic silencers leads to clear characteristics in DNA sequence preferences, correlated with different host genomic features. Xenogeneic silencers also act as a selective force against GC to AT mutational bias in bacterial genomes and help maintain host genomic AT contents at relatively low levels.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Xiaoli Liu, Jianqin Yin, Jin Liu, Pengxiang Ding, Jun Liu, Huaping Liu
Summary: The paper introduces a new end-to-end feedforward network, TrajectoryCNN, for predicting future human poses by capturing motion dynamics with coupled spatio-temporal features, dynamic local-global features, and global temporal co-occurrence features. The method achieves state-of-the-art performance on five benchmarks, demonstrating its effectiveness in human motion prediction.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS FOR VIDEO TECHNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Rui Liu, Mingmei Wang, Min Wang, Jianqin Yin, Yixuan Yuan, Jun Liu
Summary: Infertility is a global issue impacting many couples, with sperm morphology being a crucial indicator of fertility. Manual classification of sperm by medical experts is labor-intensive and reliant on their experience. By leveraging a transfer learning method based on AlexNet, automatic classification of sperm into WHO-standard categories can achieve high accuracy and precision, showing promise for future applications.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Xiangzu Han, Fei Lu, Jianqin Yin, Guohui Tian, Jun Liu
Summary: In this study, a deep R(2+1)D model was adopted for sign language recognition, which improved the optimization process by separating spatial and temporal modeling. Additionally, a lightweight spatial-temporal-channel attention module was proposed to concentrate the network on significant information. Experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method, achieving superior or comparable results to state-of-the-art methods.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HUMAN-MACHINE SYSTEMS
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Rui Liu, Wei Dai, Tianyi Wu, Min Wang, Song Wan, Jun Liu
Summary: This study developed a software named AIMIC that allows users to apply deep learning technology for microscopic image classification without coding. In evaluation experiments, ResNeXt-50-32 x4d outperformed other algorithms, while MobileNet-V2 achieved a good balance between performance and computational cost.
COMPUTER METHODS AND PROGRAMS IN BIOMEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Robotics
Sishen Yuan, Sifan Cao, Junnan Xue, Shijian Su, Junyan Yan, Min Wang, Wenchao Yue, Shing Shin Cheng, Jun Liu, Jiaole Wang, Shuang Song, Max Q-H Meng, Hongliang Ren
Summary: This study investigates the motion generation and control of an untethered magnetic flexible robot with a stretch-twist coupling origami spring skeleton, using uniform magnetic field control. The robot can perform various motions under two-dimensional magnetic signal inputs, including in-plane crawling and axial rolling motion.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2022)
Review
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Min Wang, Tianyi Wu, Rui Liu, Zhuoran Zhang, Jun Liu
Summary: This paper reviews recent advances in selective and independent control for multi-microrobot or multi-joint microrobot systems driven by magnetic fields. It introduces methods to decode global magnetic fields for individualized actuation of multiple microrobots and emphasizes the importance of independent control for the effective cooperation of multiple microrobots in accomplishing complex operations.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Min Wang, Jingjing Zhang, Ruomao Liu, Tianyi Wu, Wei Dai, Rui Liu, Jiachen Zhang, Jun Liu
Summary: Flexible sensors have the advantage of enabling intelligent systems to interact with the environment safely and without limitations. This article proposes a novel method for simultaneously sensing force magnitude and contact location using liquid metal electrodes. The proposed multifunctional sensing device demonstrates high accuracy and wide sensing range, making it suitable for human-machine interactions and industrial applications.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT
(2023)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Min Wang, Zicheng Li, Wei Dai, Rui Liu, Sishen Yuan, Jun Liu
Summary: Microfluidic devices and lab-on-a-chip systems are widely used in biological and biomedical applications. This study focuses on developing a novel flow governing device for active sample transportation and assembly using electrohydrodynamic force. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed system in transporting and assembling samples.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MANIPULATION, AUTOMATION, AND ROBOTICS AT SMALL SCALES (MARSS 2022)
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Min Wang, Kwan Yi Leung, Rui Liu, Shuang Song, Yixuan Yuan, Jianqin Yin, Max Q-H Meng, Jun Liu
Summary: This paper presents a new dynamic tracking solution for medical microrobotics by using a movable sensor array to optimize the range and accuracy of magnetic tracking. A multi-point locating algorithm is proposed to minimize background noise, showing significant potential to improve position feedback in medical applications.
2021 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION (ICRA 2021)
(2021)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Chao Qi, Jianqin Yin, Huaping Liu, Jun Liu
Summary: This paper proposes a method called NSA-MC dropout for efficient uncertainty estimation in point cloud semantic segmentation, which achieves uncertainty estimation through one-time inference and outperforms traditional MC dropout in terms of efficiency and impact on semantic inference.
2021 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION (ICRA 2021)
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Min Wang, Shuang Song, Jun Liu, Max Q. -H. Meng
Summary: This study proposed a method for simultaneous localization using magnetic density of sampling points to offset background noise field, achieving multipoint simultaneous positioning. The robustness of the proposed method in different environments was verified through simulation and experimental analysis.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT
(2021)